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KALLALOO!
A Caribbean Tale
co-author,
David Gershator
illustrated
by Diane Greenseid
Cavendish, 2005
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*Notable
Social Studies
Trade Books for Young People, 2006
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| From
the
book jacket: |
Can a shell really make soup?
It might, if it's a brown-and-white
West Indian shell, fresh from the sea. All it needs is a master
soup-maker, like Granny, to stir the pot--and a little help from the
folks in Market Square. Who wouldn't be willing to lend a hand
to cook up some kallaloo, a soup famous from Jamaica to Trinidad? But
there's one final ingredient missing--and even the magic shell
forgot to mention it!.
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| A little
about the book: |
Phillis says--
"Stone Soup" has always been one of my
favorite stories. When I was in college I thought of it often as my
friends and I scrambled to make a meal from nothing. At the supermarket
we'd buy a box of
about-to-be discarded vegetables for a dollar and
concoct what we of course called "stone soup." David and I were
recalling those days one night, probably over a bowl of soup, and he
said, "Why don't we write a Caribbean
stone soup? The soup would
have to be the most popular soup in the islands, and instead of a
stone, we'll use a shell!"
Kallaloo is practically the national dish of
the Caribbean. We first discovered it in 1969 when we moved to St.
Thomas, and our first taste was prepared by our neighbor, Arona
Peterson. Mrs.
Petersen wrote a column in dialect for the local newspaper and books
about traditional herbs and proverbs, but she also catered local
specialties out of her house, including kallaloo and, to our kids'
delight, sugarcakes.
Our book includes a traditional recipe for
kallaloo, basically a rich, thick soup, more like a stew, plus an easy
recipe which Popeye would appreciate:
QUICK KALLALOO
FOR TWO
Boil one package
of finely chopped frozen spinach OR cook 3 cups of
fresh spinach in 2 tablespoons of melted butter, covered, until tender.
Add 3 cups homemade or canned fish stock (or any kind really--vegetable
or chicken is fine) and boil. Add half pound of cut-up fresh or frozen
fish fillet. Simmer until fish is cooked through. Be careful not to
overcook.
To serve, add
lime juice to taste and a scoop of fungee. (Fungee is the
same as corn meal mush or polenta: corn meal and boiling water stirred
together until the meal is soft and the mixture is thick.)
Diane
Greenseid and her husband Pete
McCabe visited St. Thomas in 2006. Diane and I have something in
common, other than our love of picture books. Our husbands are both
songwriters! David and I got to hear the catchy singalong song Pete
wrote
for Kallaloo!
It begins like this:
KALLALOO SONG
Words and music: Pete McCabe
The poor hungry
lady walked by the sea.
She was thinking
about food for her empty tummy.
She picked up a
shell to hear what she could hear
and imagined a
voice whispered in her ear.
Soup. “What?”
The shell said soup.
“Soup would be
great. Soup would be nice.
But I’m afraid I
can’t pay the price.”
But the sea shell
said this soup is free
if you just sing
along with me:
If you want a
super-duper soup
make your stew
kallaloo.
If you want a
super-duper soup
make your stew
kallaloo.
Take this shell,
throw in the pot.
Offer a taste to
every friend you’ve got
If you want a
super-duper soup
make your stew
kallaloo.
She went into town
and boiled up the shell
in a big iron pot
she found at the well.
The water was
bubbling. The stew was hissing
when a friend took
a taste and said something’s missing.
Water and a shell
won’t do it alone.
I’m throwing in
this old ham bone.
If you want a
super-duper soup
make your stew
kallaloo.
If you want a
super-duper soup
make your stew
kallaloo.
Take this ham bone,
throw in the pot.
Offer a taste to
every friend you’ve got
If you want a
super-duper soup
make your stew
kallaloo.
And the story song continues. Everything gets added to the pot--onions,
greens, spices, and fish, until it’s a kallaloo, for true!
And David and I wrote a kallaloo calypso:
KALLALOO CALYPSO
Words: Phillis & David Gershator
Music: David Gershator
If you feel
hungry-hungry, belly talk to you.
Don’t worry at all.
Granny knows what to do:
mix fish and
onions, ham and spinach, too,
crab and okra in
Granny’s Kallaloo.
Clap your hands,
stamp your feet
if you’re ready for
an island treat.
Hullabaloo, what a
hullabaloo!
Hullabaloo for
kallaloo!
If you feel
hungry-hungry, add a scoop or two
of yellow cornmeal
fungee in your bowl of stew.
Your belly will be
happy and say for true
thank you, thank
you, thank you for a lovely kallaloo.
Clap your hands,
stamp your feet
if you’re ready for
an island treat.
Hullabaloo, what a
hullabaloo!
Hullabaloo for
kallaloo!
If you feel
hungry-hungry, if you’re feeling blue,
don’t worry at all
now, you know what to do.
Call your friends
and neighbors to come and eat with you
and cook them up a
big pot of hearty kallaloo.
Clap your hands,
stamp your feet
if you’re ready for
an island treat.
Hullabaloo, what a
hullabaloo!
Hullabaloo for
kallaloo!
And here's a reminder from David--
Kallaloo:
it's everybody's favorite stew, the
national soup of the Caribbean. Try it, you'll like it, the story and
the soup--better than Campbell's.
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| From the reviews: |
"'Lunchtime,'
said Granny, 'and me belly bawling' ...So begins this West Indian
version of the ever-popular 'Stone Soup.' In lilting language, Granny
and her hungry stomach have a conversation about what they are going to
do as she sits fishing, but not catching anything....This humorous tale
can be enjoyed alone, but is well suited to reading aloud. Greenseid's
bright and vibrant acrylic illustrations are a perfect interpretation
of the text and bring the setting to life. A well-written, engaging,
and gentle story about sharing and the power of working together to
achieve a goal." School
Library Journal
"Acrylic illustrations in brilliant tropical colors practically dance
off the pages....This tale could be read aloud for pure pleasure, or it
could launch a classroom unit on cooperation, world hunger, folktale
variations, or life in the West Indies." Library Media Connections
Art by Diane
Greenseid
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